sudomod

Hey guys and girls,
I've been hanging out here and looking at all your amazing projects and it got me wanting to build something. I have an old Android tablet with a broken digitizer that I am going to turn into a custom dedicated handheld emulator. I have already started working on it and would like to share some pics and hopefully get some ideas from everyone here.

I am going to make the case out of wood and designed it to be laser cut, here is the drawing (hard to see , converted from svg to jpeg), I am going to use an old logitech controller pcb for the controlls, like this one, I will be using an OTG cable with the tablet to attach the controller and some USB ports, so I can attach a mouse and keyboard when needed.

I will also be making all the buttons out wood as well and staining them, hopefully for a really nice look. here is a pic of me staining a couple of the buttons with food colouring, Here is the laser cut wood and a couple other pics, Let me know your thoughts.

At first I was skeptical of a wooden case but that looks damn good. I'm super excited to see this finished! Are you planning on disassembling the tablet or just using it in its case?

I do like the laser cut wood look! How do you plan to mount all the "guts"?

you know you can eliminate the scorch marks of the laser by putting masking tape over the cut lines don't you? Otherwise this looks properly amazing!

Damn I love this community. The answer to the question "why are you doing this?" Is just always "Because I can".

muniosi wrote:At first I was skeptical of a wooden case but that looks damn good. I'm super excited to see this finished! Are you planning on disassembling the tablet or just using it in its case?

Thanks, I have disassembled the tablet and will just be inserting the components I need (no case),

moosepr wrote:I do like the laser cut wood look! How do you plan to mount all the "guts"?

The laser cutting turned out better than I hoped, I am still trying to figure out how to mount everything, but probably mostly with epoxy, hot glue, wood and plastic. If anyone has any tips or prior experience I am open to ideas.

abrugsch wrote:you know you can eliminate the scorch marks of the laser by putting masking tape over the cut lines don't you? Otherwise this looks properly amazing!

Thanks, I do know about using tape, but I don't have a laser cutter and I had someone do it for me, I have been lightly sanding the "scorch/smoke" marks and they are coming off fairly easily.

Eccho wrote:Damn I love this community. The answer to the question "why are you doing this?" Is just always "Because I can".

I wanted to make a pi boy zero, then I started looking around my house to see what I could do for even less $$ and came up with this.

Here are a couple more pics of the components I took this morning.

I had some wood rings/washers made when it was laser cut that I plan on using for button wells to make sure everything stays lined up.

what would be awesome, is if you build the case up in layers, with lazer cut holes for all your components.

something like the pimoroni cases

moosepr wrote:what would be awesome, is if you build the case up in layers, with lazer cut holes for all your components.

something like the pimoroni cases

That would be awesome, if I owned a laser cutter I would do it. The guy that cut my pieces for me is to expensive

Maybe i can just cut the layers with a saw???

shaen9b3 wrote:That would be awesome, if I owned a laser cutter I would do it. The guy that cut my pieces for me is to expensive

Maybe i can just cut the layers with a saw???

you could cut with a saw yeah!! the only advantage with the laser cutter is precision and speed, there is nothing stopping you doing it all by hand. It might actually be easier, you can test fit, and fine tune the layers as you go

Here's a pic of the front with the "smoke" sanded off, just about ready to start pre fitting before I put a coat of tung oil on all the pieces